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John Meldrum is exceptionally proud to be named visiting faculty in Songwriting for the 2018-2019 school year at the illustrious music school theICMP in London, England. He is in charge of the 3rd annualICMP/ATLA International Songwriting Contest 2019 and will again be producing the songs and videos for the winning students from the two schools. John will also be giving a concert-lecture on Tuesday November 13th, 2018 at 6:30pm in London. The event will be hosted by the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance. John is also working on continuing the partnership between the two schools as the Brexit approaches. Hopefully the student and faculty exchanges developed over the past 6 years will continue unabated.

Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, John Meldrum did a five year stint in the jingle business there but grew tired of the relentlessness of advertising music, so he left America in search of something else, a different way to live. John won second prize in the Billboard song contest with the instrumental Samba del Mar in 1989, but upon seeing Paris for the first time, he fell in love with the City of Lights, and his life was never the same.

He started working in Paris playing Highlife music with Freduia Ageymang, a superb Ghanaian drummer and songwriter. John played rhythm guitar and sang with him for 5 years; the influence of this experience was to play a large role later on.

In 1993, John wrote and recorded his first album No rules here (Melmuse). As the title suggests, the disc holds to no particular style, but explores the range of his talents in a variety of settings: rock, pop, jazz and classical guitar.

John spent 6 weeks in Ghana in the summer of 1995 where he visited the village of Ayijah near Kumasi. Upon returning to Paris, he put together his group, Zongo Ambassadors and recorded the album Ayijah(Melmuse/Night and Day), which ranges from Highlife to pop and gospel all distilled through the craft of a singer-songwriter.

John’s song, Brother,Brother was performed with 650 children from 27 countries at the UNESCO auditorium in Paris. Along the way, John was lucky enough to meet Carlos Santana, Salif Keita, Max Roach, Jacques Higelin, Jean-Philippe Rykiel and Nana Danso and Madeleine Peyroux. Produced by Pierre-Jean Gaucher, the French Jazz guitarist and composer, Long Live Love was John’s latest album in 2006 with concerts in Paris, London and the USA.

John created his choir John Meldrum and the Soulways in 1999, and they now perform as The Highlites. John is also a singing and Songwriting teacher, choir director and group coach at the ATLAschool of modern music in Paris and with the ICMP Music school in London, England.

John received his first commision in 2009 to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the choir festivalVoix sur Berges and he composed a 13 minute work in Latin, French and English entitled The River of Love which was performed in June 2010, 2011 and 2012 with over 200 singers and 6 musicians. John has since created two major works using the classical structures of Oratorio and Opera yet infusing them with different styles of modern music to create something unique. Peace Oratorio is the life of Martin Luther King in 17 original songs and The Lost Lettersis a Pop-Opera based upon the extensive correspondance of the Mozart family.